8 Ways to Improve Your Mood with Touch!

by Katherine Forsythe, MSW

Katherine Forsythe

Sensuality, the need for touch, is part of our sexuality – who we are as men and women. We are born as sexual selves and we die as sexual beings. This is not the act of sex that we are talking about. It is that very basic, primal human need to share the electrical connection or sensation that comes from the Power of Touch. It’s time to pay attention to that.

In Part One I of this article on the Power of Touch, I shared with you the profound impact that touch has on our wellbeing. Now I’d like to offer ways that you can easily add the Power of Touch to your daily living.

You Don’t Need a Lover to Enjoy Touch!

You don’t need a lover. You can start with touching yourself. My guess is that you don’t tan as much as you did earlier in your life, when each time you worshipped the sun, you applied lotion all over your body before and after tanning. Now, you can do the same after every shower. Lavish lotion all over yourself, and enjoy the sensation.

If you are not making love on a regular basis, you need that tactile sensual energy. For a single person who lives alone, opportunities for actual skin-to-skin contact with another human tend to be rare. As I tell my clients, if it’s to be, it’s up to me. You don’t need the dream lover to make it happen.

8 Ways to Add the Power of Touch!

There are many ways to add the Power of Touch to your life. Following are some simple things you can do. Pick one from this list, and schedule it for this week. Do the same thing next week. You don’t need to spend a lot of money:

1. Massage
2. Manicure (with a nice long hand and arm massage)
3. Pedicure with Massage
4. Foot Rub (In San Francisco, there are lots of wonderful foot massage studios that are very inexpensive. Check out the avenues for this.)
5. Trade Back Rubs with a Friend
6. Give and Receive Hand Massages
7. Give Hugs to Appropriate People
8. Don’t Forget the Juicy Lotion for after Bath or Shower

There are lots of activities you are told to do to take care of you. You can meditate, savor chocolate, work out, and read a best seller. Perhaps more important than all of those is taking care of the basic human need for human connection that comes from sharing bodily warmth with someone else.

Move it up to #1 on your list and make a plan to address it. Watch the mood swing dramatically from frown to smile.

What are your favorite ways to add Touch to your daily life?

Katherine Forsythe, MSW, is committed to bringing joy and insight into relationships, intimacy, and sexuality for women at midlife and beyond. Through her blog, consulting, and speaking, she inspires us to redefine and invigorate intimacy and relationships on our terms, as we mature.

Her post graduate work includes San Francisco State’s Institute for Human Sexuality. Kat is credentialed by AASECT – the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists. Please visit her web site, GetASecondWind to learn more.

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